A memorial service will be Jan. 19 for Ned S. Coates, 1996 recipient of the Master Teacher Award and a retired professor of English at Williamsport Area Community College and Penn College. Coates, a faculty member from September 1967 through the 2003-04 academic year, died Sunday, Jan. 6. The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 1400 Market St. Complete details (“Anyone who knew Ned will not be surprised to learn that he wrote this obituary himself,” his family notes) are in Friday’s editions of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.

A fine art exhibition exploring global human rights violations and aiming to promote dialogue and social change opens the Spring 2019 semester at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

“The Art of Influence: Breaking Criminal Traditions” will run Jan. 15 through Feb. 28 at The Gallery at Penn College. A reception will be held Thursday, Feb. 7, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., in the gallery, located on the third floor of the Madigan Library. A gallery talk, delivered by the exhibition’s curator, will begin at 5:30 p.m. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public.

Mark J. Leo has been appointed director of dining services by Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Leo, who began his duties Jan. 8, comes to Penn College from American Dining Creations, where he had been employed since 2000. Most recently, he was district manager for the company’s Mid-Atlantic Region, managing 22 corporate accounts.

For those looking to sharpen their computer skills while learning something new, Workforce Development & Continuing Education at Pennsylvania College of Technology is offering several easy-to-learn computer courses.

The Microsoft Office courses are taught by qualified instructors at a comfortable pace for all levels of adult learners. The classes are held in a relaxed computer-classroom environment, allowing participants to learn, experiment and ask questions. Courses are hands-on, with each participant working at a computer station.

Produced by SkillsUSA, a “Diversity in Manufacturing” video features the state champion Penn College welding team of Erin M. Beaver, Joelle E. Perelli and Natalie Rhoades. The welding and fabrication engineering majors are helping to change America’s outdated ideas on what manufacturing is and what kind of person can find success, security and satisfaction in a manufacturing-related career. The video, added to the college’s YouTube channel, also includes insights from Volvo Construction Equipment North America.

Members of the Penn College community are encouraged to contribute life-saving blood during this month’s collection for the American Red Cross. Online appointments are available for the visit, scheduled from noon-6 p.m. Jan. 15-16 in Penn’s Inn (Bush Campus Center, second floor). Pediatric cancer patients also will be helped by the two-day drive, as $4 will be donated to the Four Diamonds Fund on behalf of Penn College Benefiting THON for each unit of blood collected. College Health Services will provide special T-shirts to successful donors, and director Carl L. Shaner – noting the snowy disruption of a November Bloodmobile – has “fingers crossed that the weather is good!” The specter of winter looms large over the Red Cross’s collection efforts, as the need for donors doesn’t get a snow day. Weather-related Bloodmobile cancellations add to a shortage that has already hit emergency levels, so faculty/staff and students are urged to consider rolling up their sleeves.

After a break for the holidays, Pennsylvania College of Technology men’s and women’s basketball teams and its wrestling squad returned to action last week going a combined 2-4. North Eastern Athletic Conference basketball action resumes this week.

With the new year upon us, Pennsylvania College of Technology winter sports teams now turn their attention to the spring semester and second half of their respective seasons. The men’s basketball team resumes play at 4 p.m. Thursday at SUNY Delhi, the women’s basketball team picks up at 5 p.m. Thursday at Misericordia University and the wrestling squad hits the mats at 10 a.m. Saturday in the North-South Duals at Ursinus College.

Wrapping up 2018, the Pennsylvania College of Technology wrestling team went 2-2 and the men’s basketball team 0-2 in nonconference action last week. Both teams, along with the women’s basketball squad, return to action the first week in January.

Pennsylvania College of Technology held its Fall 2018 commencement on Saturday, Dec. 22, in the Community Arts Center, bringing down the curtain − as winter officially arrives and the new year nears − on another season of academic success. The student speaker was Katherine Lynne Mertes, of Williamsport, who was awarded a bachelor’s degree in residential construction technology and management: building construction technology concentration. Also addressing the Class of ’18 was Joanna K. Flynn, associate professor of mathematics, who was presented with the Veronica M. Muzic Master Teacher Award in May. Civil engineering technology alumna Margaret A. Jackson received the Alumni Achievement Award during the ceremony, at which more than 300 degrees were conferred by college President Davie Jane Gilmour and Steven P. Johnson, president of UPMC Susquehanna and a member of the college’s Board of Directors.

A civil engineer who is serving as a project manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s $670 million Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation project was honored with an Alumni Achievement Award at Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Fall 2018 commencement ceremonies, held Dec. 22 at the Community Arts Center.

Margaret A. “Maggie” Jackson, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering technology from Penn College in 2008, is co-managing PennDOT’s CSVT project, a long-anticipated initiative to enhance the busy Route 15 corridor in Central Pennsylvania. Expected to be completed in the mid-2020s, the project comprises nearly 13 miles of a new four-lane, limited-access highway crossing three counties and a massive, 4,545-foot-long bridge over the West Branch of the Susquehanna River south of Lewisburg.